Freaks and Beasts
by BellaZ0id
Summary: After trying to live without Bella and failing, Edward decides to break his promise to Bella and visit the Volturi but before he can even make it to the Atlantic Ocean he comes across an unsuspecting girl with a secret. Can she make him feel alive again?
1. Scent

**Note From Author: **The other main character is a new character. I understand that there are many readers out there that find this to be a stupid or lame storyline, but come on, who out there hasn't wished they could be in Bella's shoes? I decided the best way to do that, for me, would be to write about it... with a twist of fantasy of course ;) Also, how many really think Bella is a great character? I'm sorry if you do but I could never write her, she's too boring. (also, if that's how you feel, you probably shouldn't read it.) _Also, Reviews are Love! Please Review! It's hard to keep a story going when you don't know if people like it! _

**Disclaimer: **Unfortunately, I did not create Edward Cullen. Or any other characters that might show up from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

_Scent. _

There are many things to be said for the kindness of vampires. However, on this particular night, Edward was blood thirsty. He'd staved off his thirst for far too long and he felt weaker than he'd felt in a very long time. His eyes were as black as death as he hid down an alley, waiting for an unsuspecting victim to walk by. He was about four blocks down forty-fourth street, leaning perfectly still against the wet, brick wall. A bakery sat to his left and an apartment building was to his right. It seemed he picked a bad street. He'd been waiting for nearly half an hour and not a single human had walked down the street, nor any cats or dogs for that matter. But Edward was above eating strays. Tonight he would dine well, a feast for a king. He needed to rebuild his strength before he made the long journey to Italy. He decided that if he was going to do this, if he was going to break this promise, he would do it slowly, making sure he had plenty of time to think about it. So he was going by boat. A small one-man boat he'd bought second hand after reading an ad in the 'For Sale' section of the newspaper. The man selling it had asked Edward what he would be using it for but he had politely declined to answer, knowing full well the average person wouldn't be able to cross the Atlantic in a small, wooden, one-manned boat and Edward, being beyond average, didn't want to spark any kind of curiosity about him or his journey.

A gust of wind blew past the alley and Edward stiffened. A girl had turned the corner on to the street just then and the wind had caught her scent, taunting Edward with her lovely aroma. Edward thought he noticed something strange about the way she smelled, salty almost and, oddly, a little fishy... but his thirst was so great that he ignored it. He fought to stay calm, to maintain some since of humanity. He hated the vile, animal like creature he became when he fed so tonight, he was going to try and do it properly, humanly… or at least as humanly sucking the blood of another human could be… Edward peeked around the corner to get a view of his victim. She was about five and a half feet tall with long, loose blonde curls that danced around her face in the wind. She walked annoyingly slow, even for a human. She scuffed her feet on the sidewalk and kept her face down as she walked. She had an olive green bag slung across her chest and carried an iPod in one hand with the earphones tucked in to her ears. Though Edward was quite far from her he could hear the music perfectly. She was listening to Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Edward leaned back in to the alley and threw his head back as he let out the quietest chuckle he could manage. Of course, of all the teenage girls in all of New York, he gets the one that is the tiniest bit cultured. And beautiful. Though he hated to admit it, she was very beautiful. Her hair looked like soft, thin, tendrils of gold and silver and her vibrant blue eyes sparkled in the light of her iPod. Her cheeks wore a slight red tint due to the cold and her lips looked extremely luscious. Her eyes were slightly puffy and red though, as if she'd been crying.

Her footsteps grew louder as she neared Edwards hiding spot and he quickly began planning his attack. There was the rooftop, to his left, of the bakery. It was low enough that he could probably grab the girl, jump on to the dumpster and leap to the top of the building before she ever had time to know what was happening, much less scream. There he could commit the atrocity by the light of the moon, the better to see her with. Or, he could talk to her, lure her to his apartment and do it in the privacy of his home. Edward didn't like that idea; he didn't want to hurt the girl more than she needed to be and breaking her heart and neck at the same time would be to much for him to bear. But on the other hand, he did crave company. He hadn't had a proper conversation in months… _No Edward,_ he told himself, _if you take her back, you'll never be able to kill her. You're not a monster. Getting to know her as a person makes it impossible to consider her a meal. You, of all people, know this. _Edward took a second to try and listen to the girl's mind. But all he heard was the song reaching its climax, her footsteps, and a buzzing neon sign across the street. He stiffened. This had not happened to him in over ten years. And the last time…. Well Edward didn't like to think about that. He considered that maybe she just had no thoughts, maybe her mind was focused completely on the music and that's why he heard nothing. Or maybe she really was just stupid enough to not have a single thought racing through her brain. In all likely-hood it was possible. What girl would go out walking the streets of New York completely unaccompanied, looking as beautiful as she did and smelling so fantastic? "A fool," he muttered to himself. He decided that the girl must be a complete idiot and would therefore be of no great loss to society. This comforted him slightly. He decided he would take her back to his place. At least he'd get a bit of company for awhile. And then a lovely feast when he tired of her company….

_**Preview of next chapter:**_ _She smiled meekly at him from under her lashes and the power of her ocean blue eyes almost knocked him off his feet. This was certainly a new experience for Edward. He had never been 'dazzled' before. _


	2. Night

**Note From Author: **Here's Chapter 2! I'm honestly sorry it took so long, I just got really stuck. Hopefully it won't happen again. Please Review if you like it! Maybe you have ideas about where it's going/what should happen next? I'd love to know!

**Disclaimer: **Unfortunately, I did not create Edward Cullen. Or any other characters that might show up from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

_Night._

She was half-way towards him now and he started contemplating what he would tell her to convince her to follow him. He could comment on her musical tastes, or perhaps say something about her crying, most humans loved when people took pity on them. This girl would surely be no different. So as not to stir her curiosity, he ran down the back of the alley and turned left to run behind the buildings. He wanted to make it look like he'd just turned the corner on to the street. Walking out from alleys was usually not the most assured way to get someone to trust you. He kept track of her footsteps, to make sure she was staying on course. Just as he was about to turn the corner on to the street he heard her footsteps stop. He kept with the plan and as he turned the corner he saw that she was paused right in front of the bakery he had just been next to. Her ipod was off and she was looking back and forth between the street signs.

Ah. She was lost, how pleasantly convenient for him. He smirked to himself at how easy this would be. She was currently squinting at the sign on the street she had just come from. He was several feet away when he said, as kindly as he could muster, "Are you lost?" She jumped at the sound of his voice. "I'm so sorry," he said sincerely, "I did not meant to frighten you." She smiled meekly at him from under her lashes and the power of her ocean blue eyes almost knocked him off his feet. This was certainly a new experience for Edward. He had never been 'dazzled' before. He thought he had but what _she _had made him feel was, admittedly, nothing like this… nothing even close. As she gazed up at him he lost himself. He lost the burning in his throat, he lost his sense of being attached to the earth, he lost the aching in his heart… he no longer cared that he couldn't hear her thoughts, or that he had been on a suicide mission. All he cared about was getting to know this girl. He wanted to know her inside and out. He wanted to help her. A person as wonderful as her shouldn't have to suffer the annoyance of being lost.

And then she broke their gaze and focused her eyes on the spot in between his eyebrows. _Strange_, Edward thought, _she must know the effect she has_. But as Edward watched her face he realized that it must be that he was dazzling her right back. Her eyes where large with surprise and her mouth was hanging slightly open. She looked as though she had completely lost all ability to function. Maybe being 'dazzled' was a new sensation for her too.

"Are you ok?" he asked, knowing full well she wasn't.

"Erm…" she mumbled, and then softly shook her head as if trying to restart it. Edward watched her regain her composure and smiled when she said, "I would be better if I knew how to get back to my hotel." She looked up to Edward with a hopeful glint in her eye.

"Well, what was the name of it? Do you remember the street it was on?"

"It's a Mariott. Just off of Times Square. I have the business card," she said rummaging through her bag. She pulled it out and showed it to Edward. As he reached for it, their fingers inevitably brushed ever so slightly. Edward was a bit surprised at how cold her fingers felt but chalked it up to the weather. "Yes, I know exactly where this is. It's really close to my favorite movie theatre," Edward said as he took a step in the direction of the hotel, the opposite direction he'd just been coming from.

"Oh, if you could just give me the directions… I think that would be better," she said. She hid the hint of worry very well but it didn't get past Edward.

"I know how this must look," he started, looking towards the sky and closing his eyes for slightly longer than a blink. He had learned that humans naturally did it as a way of showing honesty and trust. "But I don't think it's a good idea for you to go walking down these streets alone. I'm not here to harm you, but I can't say the same about the next guy." And it was true. Edward was feeling a swirl of emotions like he hadn't felt in so long. He wasn't even sure he'd ever felt so strongly, so … dizzy. It felt almost as though his heart might suddenly burst in to life and start beating with anticipation. His palms would sweat and his cheeks would flush. It felt like it might, but of course nothing could be more impossible. Being around her though, it made him feel strangely human; sick with emotion. He couldn't let her out of his sight for a moment.

The girl looked wary. "I want to trust you, but I know I shouldn't. You're a stranger."

"If I wanted to harm you, wouldn't I have done so already? I'll give you my driver's license, you can text all of my information to your friends. If anything happens to you, I won't have any way of hiding." That was a lie of course but he knew it would convince her.

"Fine, I can see you won't let this go. But you're walking about 5 feet in front of me and I'll warn you now that I one) have taken self-defense classes, two) can stab your eyes out with my key and three) I've got pepper spray."

Edward chuckled. "Duly noted," he said with a small smile. _Maybe she's not such an idiot_, he thought. He handed his driver's license to her and she pulled out her cell phone to text all his information to her friends.

"Well Edward Cullen, I'm Lana. And I suppose it's nice to meet you. But I won't be able to give you the final verdict on that one until I get my back to my hotel in one piece." She put her ipod in to her bag and tucked her hair behind her ears. A few strands didn't quite make it and Edward fought with the urge to grasp them.

"Well aren't you just full of wit," he said with a big grin. "And I will say that it's nice to meet you." Her eyes went out of focus for a fraction of a second as she was briefly blinded, (or dazzled, or whatever word was most accurate, he couldn't be sure since he couldn't see in to her mind) by his smile and Edward had to fight his emotions to reign his smile in.

She smiled back briefly and ducked her head down in embarrassment as she bit her lip. When Edward didn't immediately start walking she bowed and waved her hand, indicating for him to go ahead.

"Oh!" Edward said, coming back to reality. For the briefest moment his mind had wandered off in to a day dream. That was highly unusual for Edward who usually had such a vast brain capacity that he could be fully aware and attentive while also day-dreaming. She laughed as Edward tucked his hands in to his pockets and began walking down the sidewalk.

"So," he began once they reached the corner and she was a safe distance behind him. "Am I allowed to make small talk."

"I think that would make this look slightly less odd," she said. Edward could tell by her tone that she was smiling and it made him smile too. Well, smile more than he already was.

"Why are you visiting New York?" he asked.

"Senior trip," she replied simply*.

"So you graduate from high school in the spring?"

"Yes, and please don't ask what college I'm going to because I haven't decided even though my family made me apply to every school you can name." _That's unlikely_, Edward thought, _considering I can name almost fifteen hundred school's on the west coast alone and there is no way she applied to that many_. He also made a mental note of the fact that she had said family instead of parents, feeling that it was a strange word choice.

"Do you know what you'll major in?"

"Oh, the possibilities are endless aren't they? I'm not quite sure on that point either. I think I'd like to do literature or maybe sociology or psychology or philosophy or European history or… well you get the idea. I'm not sure." She chuckled as if it reminded her of a private joke.

"What, what's so funny?" Edward asked.

"Nothing… I just… everyone always teases about being indecisive. And it's painfully obvious that I am. Well, it's not even that I'm indecisive it's just that… Well, I guess I want to make sure I get as much out of life as I can, you know? And going to school close to home, or here on the east coast or west coast or anywhere, it will completely mold what my life will become but I can't know how it will effect it and so it's obviously not an easy decision."

Edward began crossing the street when he said, "Yeah I know what you mean." And it struck him that even though he was actually over 100 years old and could theoretically live forever, this was actually sort of true. And suddenly Edward was thinking about all the things he'd never done. He was a vampire with an endless supply of money and he'd never even been to Disney World, or New Zealand and even though he was very intelligent, he'd actually never studied philosophy or archaeology and he could sort of play the guitar and violin but of course he wasn't as proficient as he was at the piano. What was he waiting for?

"The world is always changing," Edward said, a bit mystified, "and people are always being born and dying and new technology is being created and some people are creating art that they are too embarrassed to share and they'll end up burning it and we will never know it. Even if we lived forever and had all the time in the world, we could never know everything or see everything."

Lana chuckled from behind and Edward glanced over his shoulder, laughing wasn't exactly the appropriate response.

"I've known you for about 10 minutes and already our conversation has turned morose."  
Edward smiled, "Sorry, I have that affect on people."

"Well I was gonna blame myself but if you want to take the credit, by all means, please do. One less thing I can take the credit for turning sour."

"I sense a story there," he said realizing that she was now only a step behind him.

"Not a very exciting one I'm sorry to say. Just endless accounts of me waxing philosophical and being the Debbie Downer of my group," she said giving a small chuckle.

"Hmm," Edward said, "I think we have that in common."

They had finally come to a much more crowded part of town, even for the late hour, and Edward was suddenly reminded of the painful burning in the back of his throat as the smell of people drinking and dancing and whatever else people did at three o'clock in the morning near Time's Square in New York City hit him.

"Is something wrong?" Lana asked as Edward shoved his fists further in to his pockets, tilted his head down and tried, with no response, to relax his impossibly tense shoulders. She was now right beside him. Either because there were people around or because she was more comfortable, Edward couldn't know.

Edward just shook his head, not sure it was safe to inhale.

Lana continued walking next to him but when the crowds got thicker outside the nightclubs, it was harder for her to keep up so Edward linked their arms together. It was almost amazing how easily he was able to slip in to the I-love-you-and-I-don't-want-to-eat-you mode. It helped that she smelled like fish and salt; not exactly appealing… Lana turned her face up to him, her eyes big and shocked with a hint of hesitance but Edward paid no attention and continued to pull them trough the crowds, deep in to the New York night…


End file.
